Stax Oral Histories: Paul Brown Interviewer: Jake Paul Brown: Brown Note(s): -“[?]” indicate that a word or phrase could not be transcribed or heard correctly. - “*” indicate that the spelling of a word may not be accurate. [0:00] Jake: How long have you gotten with the music business? Brown: Well, it’s accident really, well it was divine or [?], I was ten years old and my mom got hooked on dermal, and because of a uterus accident this happened when I was six but you know by the time I was ten [1:00] she couldn’t.. she couldn’t she just couldn’t break to have it and she [?] and ended up separating me and my three brothers and put putting us all in different schools. Jake: Like boarding schools? Brown: Mhm, boarding [inaudible] or foreign schools were pretty rough man cause we were you know my stepdad and all he was cool and I love him god rest his soul you know still he was from the Philippines and he really didn’t have it all together you know as far as just dad hood and so when mama ODed* he kinda went out and did his thing you know, went out and kinda did his thing and we were actually me and my brothers were lent in this house for about a month before human services fou- and no [?] and they found us and that’s what.. Jake: Then how’d you eat? [2:00] Brown: Hmm..? Jake: How’d you eat? Brown: There was food there, but you know, but it was dwindling down by the end of the month for sure cause I remember there wasn’t much, just a lot of bread [laughter between Jake and Brown] I was ten my brothers were.. Sparky was five years older than me and he was already in a reform school called Talltree I believe my other brothers were man and they’re 4, 3 and 4 years older than me. Jake: Now this is in Memphis? Brown: Yeah Jake: How did you get to Memphis? Brown: When I was a year old my mom went with me and my two real brothers we had together and had taken to the Philippines first, and [3:00] and we stayed there for a couple of years and by when I was five, we ended up moving here because my mom had rode us here, or in Mississippi and when we ended up moving back here and getting like in one of those low income living houses project place and that’s how I came to Memphis then. Well, when I was ten, all of this happened.. the school they sent me to is in Nashville and it’s called TPS and Tennessee Preparatory School, that is where, that’s where I really started you know before then it is weird with me before then man I could always get I had these wooden guitars just gutted no pickups or anything I found in the dumpster and I’d have this little arm my neighbors had a microphone stand and I had the you know the toilet paper wad and I was like yeah I was like little guitars but and [4:00] I always was really it was real freaky with me around music and I remember that I remember how it felt It was some real connection I could never place it but there some neighbors around the block that and like a piano and I would go over there and peck on his piano and I know this guy named Louis Paul* who actually has to do with Stax or it was you know he was pretty big here in Memphis now, but back then he had an efficiency town house kind of deals and his room full of equipment man, and you couldn’t pry me out of this place, and I remember how I always felt around drum sets and all that stuff, but I actually never played you know there were really locked on to it until I actually got into this school well you gotta understand that at ten years old my hair is as long as it is now, longer actually, and when I got there but the rule of the school [5:00] was that if you’re in elementary they’ll lop your hair off and that was it, and if you could see this barber man that cut my hair, I mean this was like I mean this guy he was the one I drank coffee cause he drank massive amounts of coffee and these big dark circles and his look like something out of a creature I mean he’s scary he was so scary when he cut your hair Jake: [?] Brown: yeah and when he was and he was like he would be shaking you know and I’m just sitting there and that was I went to bed real bad too so that’s was like kinda my security point at the last point and when he cut it off man then he cut if off in such a way I just looked terrible this is just all gassed up man, and I had a cowlick anyway you know and it was all sticking up, I had that man and I it was just it I was at a really humiliated point in my life at that point.. [6:00] So in elementary school I got into a music man and I.. and that’s when I you know, sat down on the piano and started kinda you know, hammered away and I fell in love with it and they had another school they and this thing called sponsors you know the guy this guy called Don Francisco who went on to win dubs* for Christian records and stuff well he ended up my big brother through that, he came to church service one Sunday and it was kinda mandatory ready to go to service so, were sitting in church and I watched and I was so blown away by his performance by his message and by his message and by his spirit and all that stuff and I had to go up and say something to him and then a couple of weeks later, he came back and started sponsoring me and he got me a guitar I started playing, actually I learned guitar before I learned piano and I started getting into that but I don’t know [7:00] when I landed on a piano and that was kinda I knew there was something different about that and then when I went on to get into high school I started trumpet and I got into band well I actually I started playing everything I could get my hands the flute, bass.. well everything but the piano, was always stuck with me you know but the time; well there was a couple of really weird points in my life there was one point where they tried to stick me with some foster parents and that didn’t really work out, they took me back here to Memphis and then the foster parents turned out to be just nuts you know, and what happened is they.. one night when we were going for pizza they took me to juvenile court and you know [?] for about 15 to 20 minutes and then you know and [8:00] then what actually happened is we were pulling onto the parking lot and I’m kinda getting nervous and freaked cause I always freaked out about that anyway you know.. and so they said were just gonna go in and sign some papers and this is like Friday mid-evening this is like not [?] but I sat in a room nervous and just a few minutes later this guy comes in and starts wailing on me you know, “You treat your parents like crap,” this and that, you know, yeah I think I stayed there in juvenile court and detention for about forty-five days before anybody knew.. no, I take that back its longer than that, this was this was this was like almost 3 months stead before I end up getting out of that one I didn’t know who or who is gonna you know if I was gonna get out or [9:00] anything and one day this social worker that one of the ones responsible for us going to that school in the first place was trying to find me and trying to check up on me and happened to find me down there got me out and put me back In the school at that point that was so that was so.. Jake: How old were you then? Brown: I was thirteen then mhm yeah and it was really low point there man and um well I got back to school and the music teachers name was Mr. Pickle and he’s you know he’s still my hero you know and he’s just a zany* guy that would come in dressed in clown suits and he was so cool because he would come in some mornings and he had put on these parliament records or these fire* records and then sit down and go ok now this is how you could do this song on piano and it just clean blew me away I mean it was so hip like that but he was also a [10:00] great orchestra player I mean he could play with some serious symphonies in his time but he he knew I was really going through it at that point you know when I got back and he invit- Jake: And at a rough age too Brown: Yeah, it was and when he.